Gears of War is a third-person shooter video game created by Epic Games. It is compatible for the Xbox 360 and is rated M in the USA and 18 in the UK. Its platforms include the Xbox 360 console and the PC, and has sold over 3 million copies since its release on November 7, 2006. As of E3 2007, Gears of War has been ported to PC, as one of many 'Games for Windows'. The PC edition has new features, and five new single player chapters. For further information please regard the specific article, Gears of War (PC).

Contents

Background

The Gears of War Trailer

The teaser trailer features Marcus being chased through the streets by Locust forces until he is cornered by a Corpser. The solemn tone set by the background song, Mad World as performed by Gary Jules, would be a continuing theme through later Gears of War trailers.

Game Basics

Plot

Act 1: Ashes - As the game opens 14 years after Emergence Day, former soldier Marcus Fenix is freed from the Jacinto Maximum Security Prison by his close friend, Dominic Santiago, who needs Fenix's help in the fight against the Locust. Both manage to escape the prison moments before it is destroyed by a Corpser, and then meet up with the other members of Delta Squad, Anthony Carmine and Minh Young Kim. They recieve orders to find Alpha Squad and secure possession of the "Resonator", a device intended to map out the Locust underground tunnel network for the Lightmass Bomb. En route to Alpha's last known location, Carmine is killed by a Locust sniper. Marcus, Dom, and Kim are able to meet up with a private from Alpha Squad, Augustus Cole, who says the rest of Alpha are at the Tomb of the Unknowns and that transmissions have been blocked by Seeders. Marcus then eliminates the Seeders using the Hammer of Dawn. After finding three more privates from Alpha, Damon Baird, Gyules, and an unknown Gear, they are ambushed by Locust Forces. Kim is separated from the others and is killed by General RAAM. While retreating into the Tomb, the unknown Gear is killed while providing cover fire. After Marcus defeats a Locust Berserker, which kills Gyules, the team confirms with headquarters that the Resonator is safe, and are then ordered to the Lethia Imulsion Facility, ten kilometers from their position. Marcus is also put in charge of Delta Squad in place of Kim.

Act 2: Nightfall - Dom suggests that the fastest way to reach the mine would be to borrow a Junker from a Stranded named Franklin, who owes Dom a favor from deals in the past. After reaching the camp, Franklin reluctantly agrees to give him the Junker on the condition that Cole and Baird stay behind at the Stranded camp to help them defend against the Locust. Dom agrees, and he and Marcus head across the ruined city as nightfall descends, bringing out the Kryll, carnivorous bat-like creatures that attack anything in the dark. The two fight through the Locust forces to reach Aspho gas station, where the Junker is kept, and then drive it back to the camp, defending themselves from the Kryll with an ultraviolet light equipped on the Junker that can kill the Kryll. The two arrive at the Stranded camp just in time to help defend it from a large Locust onslaught. Once the situation is secured, the team moves onwards towards the mining facility in the Junker.

Act 3: Belly of the Beast - Delta Squad reaches the outskirts of the mining facility just as the Junker ceases to function. They make their way on foot through the abandoned facility and into the Imulsion mine tunnels, heading towards a pre-determined location where the effect of the Resonator should have maximum effect, all the while defending themselves against constant Locust onslaughts. The team eventually reach their target destination, after Marcus defeats a Corpser, and after securing the area, Baird sets off the Resonator device and they narrowly escape back to the surface. Unfortunately, the team quickly learns from HQ that the data collected from the Resonator blast was much too little to be of use for the Lightmass Bomb. However, a device found by Baird seems to already contain a near-complete map of the tunnel system, with the data linking back to Marcus' father, Adam Fenix, and his home, the East Barricade Academy.

Act 4: The Long Road Home - Delta Squad rides a King Raven helicopter to the East Barricade Academy, now ruined and heavily controlled by Locust, losing a second King Raven to an attack by Nemacyst air spores in the sky. The team is dropped off just outside the Academy and are forced to fight their way through massive numbers of Locust on their way to the mansion where Adam Fenix lived. Baird discovers an APC in need of repair at the back of the manor, and he and Cole rush off to repair it while Marcus and Dom search the manor for the data. After finding the hidden laboratory in the basement, they leave their cloaked robot, Jack, to download the data and defend the house against waves of Locust attackers. As Jack finishes downloading the tunnel maps, the two soldiers rush for the newly repaired APC behind the manor, with a gargantuan reptilian-like Locust called a Brumak already charging towards them. Delta Squad and Jack reach the APC just as the Brumak smashes through the manor, escaping the pursuing monster.

Act 5: Desperation - The team now rushes for the train station to get aboard the Tyro Pillar, an armored freight train carrying the Lightmass Bomb at the front. Locust attack them at the station and prevent Cole and Baird from jumping onto the train as it speeds past, leaving only Marcus and Dom to battle through to the front of the train as it travels across the wasteland towards the Locust stronghold. Unfortunately, they encounter General RAAM at the front of the train, guarding the Lightmass Bomb, though Marcus and Dom are able to defeat him. With a destroyed bridge quickly approaching as the train speeds ahead, Marcus uploads the tunnel data into the Lightmass Bomb and activates it, escaping the train by jumping into a nearby King Raven, with the help of Dom and Colonel Hoffman, seconds before the train falls off of the tracks and into the Imulsion below. The bombs from the Lightmass launch into the Locust tunnels beneath, successfully eradicating most of an important Locust stronghold, and almost all of the Kryll breeding grounds. Hoffman later announces their victory to the rest of the world, but the haunting voice of the Locust Queen clearly says that the Locust have not been defeated, and will continue to fight back.

Locust

Behind the Scenes

A piece of concept art.

Gears of War started off as a game called "Unreal Warfare" and was to be the next Epic Games-developed Unreal game after Unreal Tournament was released.[1] It was to be a large multiplayer game set in the Unreal universe. Problems during its development caused the team to delay it and instead release an Epic-modified version of the Digital Extremes-developed Xbox game Unreal Championship, which is called Unreal Tournement 2003.[2] After UT2k3 was shipped, early development on Unreal Engine 3 began. The development team decided to move Unreal Warfare to Unreal Engine 3 and placed what they had finished with the Unreal Engine 2 in Unreal Tournament 2004, which became the Onslaught game mode in UT2k4.[3][4] During the transition, the team decided to split "Unreal Warfare" from the Unreal series because of how different it was from the established Unreal universe. It was then that Unreal Warfare began to evolve into Gears of War.

Materials from GoW, while it was still on the Unreal Engine 2.5 can be found in Unreal Tournament 2004's game files, such as a weapon model called ""warcoggunner", which is a portable Chain Gun that has an early version of the Gear logo on it.

Epic had originally planned on calling the Locusts "Geist", but couldn't ship with that name since Nintendo had a game with the same name.

Originally, Epic had a traditional FPS without cover, but after a friend of Cliff showed him kill.switch, he changed the design to a "Resident Killswitch" type of game design after that and Resident Evil.

Old ideas include the thought of "Combat Cash", which you could loot and get cash, and a "Morale Meter", where if teammates were depressed they could kill themselves. The game Blacksite Area 51 has something similar to the moral meter. Both ideas were thrown out because they got in the way of the action.

Gears started as a first person game, but after seeing tech demos of Unreal Engine 3, they decided it was a shame to not be able to see the character whenever he's doing anything. They wanted to do something different from Unreal Tournament.

Another piece of concept art.

As far as positioning the camera goes in making a third-person game, much of the inspiration for the camera system came from Resident Evil 4's Over-The-Shoulder camera system.

On another note, they decided to go with a toggle cover system instead of using the left stick to push the player into cover. It was rather difficult for the system to decide if the player wanted to enter cover, or merely walk past a wall.

The Y button was originally unassigned until the idea of "Point of Interest" was conceived.

There were a few key ideas that were adhered to throughout the design:

Slower paced game based on trade-offs, i.e. not having a crosshair unless the player is aiming directly at something.

No aliens from space.

Low tech and high tech

Embracing some cliches, but shedding others.

In the options menu on the main menu, there is an extreme content filter option that cuts back the gore and downplays the stronger profanities.

Gears of War (Windows)

Gears of War was developed for Windows XP and Vista about 1 year after the Xbox version, with the following additions:

Gears for Windows achievements

Act 5 extended: Not tagged on but a bonus addition to the story that fits well in which after an APC is obtained one will come across a draw bridge. The objective is to travel on foot through an additional 4 chapters to activate the power plant and drive to Tyro platform.

Additionally, there is the chance to fight a Brumak in the PC version. (in act 5) Also, an achievement is unlocked.

The Longshot Sniper Rifle, like in Gears of War 2, has affiliation zoom in (red zoom in for Locust, blue for COG)

Awards

"2006 goes down in gaming history as the year of Gears of War. With hundreds of awards and nominations to its credit, no other game that year had as much commercial and critical impact as Gears. All the big gaming sites had their say, and it turns out they like it—a lot. Gears also received a hefty helping of acclaim from the games industry, picking up "best" awards left and right."